Health Care
January 26, 2012
Number of Older Inmates Grows, Stressing Prisons
The number of Americans in prison older than 55 is growing at a faster rate than the group’s share of the population at large, and many prisons are unprepared to provide them with health care, which can cost as much as nine times more than for younger inmates, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday.
The complications in handling the swelling number of aging prisoners range from making allowances for those with Alzheimer’s or dementia and finding sufficient ground-floor cells for inmates in wheelchairs to ensuring that older prisoners are not exploited or robbed by younger inmates...
LINK - NYTimes.com
January 17, 2012
Judge to end Calif. prison receiver
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered California officials to prepare for the end of a six-year, court-ordered oversight of the prison system that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and helped force a shift of lower-level criminals from state prisons to county jails.
U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson cited improving conditions in the prison system in a three-page order that says "the end of the Receivership appears to be in sight."
The ruling marks an important milestone in a process that began nearly six years ago when the judge appointed a receiver to run California's prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week was dying of neglect or malpractice. He cited inmate overcrowding as the leading cause, but said in Tuesday's order that conditions have improved...
LINK - SacBee.com
January 6, 2012
Stockton prison hospital set to open end of 2013
Construction is well under way on the California Health Care Facility, a nearly $1 billion prison medical project in southeast Stockton, and the action is expected to only get hotter.
Clark/McCarthy, the general contractor assembling the facility's 31 main buildings, currently has about 120 employees and subcontractors on site.
"We'll be almost 1,200 by the Fourth of July," predicted Mike Ricker, Clark/McCarthy vice president...
LINK - RecordNet.com
December 20, 2011
2012 State Contribution Rates for Health Care
As noted earlier, the State Contribution rates are increasing. This is occurring because of our bargaining efforts and the members’ passage of the current MOU. Please distribute this information to your membership and remind them that this is one of the benefits they received due to their willingness to agree to the terms of the contract we now live under. In times of cuts and sacrifices, due to extreme financial woes statewide and nationwide, having an increase in our member’s net pay should be a welcome relief...
November 28, 2011
Prison doctors, barred from seeing patients, collect full pay
California prisons have paid doctors and mental health professionals accused of malpractice an estimated $8.7 million since 2006 to do no work at all or to perform menial chores like sorting mail, tossing out old medical supplies and reviewing inmate charts for clerical errors.
At least 30 medical professionals have collected their six-figure salaries for a cumulative 37 years in a kind of employment limbo after fellow doctors decided they were too dangerous to treat inmates but before the state's lengthy discipline appeals process made a final decision on whether they should be fired, state records show...
LINK - LATimes.com
June 27, 2011
Sen. Michael Rubio: Inmates shouldn’t receive better health care than the rest of us
A few days ago, I read about a man in North Carolina who was unemployed, sick and without health insurance. In an act of desperation, he decided to rob a bank, but asked that the clerk give him only one dollar. He then calmly waited for the police to arrive and arrest him.
The gentleman had apparently lost his job as a soda delivery man. His ongoing pain from arthritis, slipped disks and a growth on his chest had now driven him to do the unthinkable, all for the sake of being able to see a doctor.
Inmates today receive better and more efficient health care than hardworking people who have fallen on hard times or that have courageously defended our nation. This injustice is precisely why I introduced SB 484, which would require the prison system to cut health care spending per inmate to no more than the state pays per patient for low-income people on Medi-Cal by 2015...
LINK - Bakersfield.com
June 17, 2011
CMC, County Grand Jury report in the news
Overcrowding at the San Luis Obispo County women’s jail and an antiquated health facility at the California Men’s Colony were two concerns raised in a report released Wednesday by the county’s civil grand jury.
Fortunately, as grand jurors put it, both agencies are working on projects to upgrade and improve their facilities over the next three years.
The report was the culmination of visits by the grand jury to all seven of the police departments in the county, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, CMC and county Juvenile Services Center...
LINK - SanLuisObispo.com
May 8, 2011
Federal receiver Kelso says OIG report is wrong on inmate health care problems
The court-appointed receiver in charge of California prison medical care said a report criticizing the quality of inmate treatment is outdated and does not reflect recent improvements.
The state Office of the Inspector General reported last week that just nine of the 33 adult prisons met minimum health care standards, even after taxpayers spent billions of dollars to improve treatment.
In that report, the score for the California Institution for Men in Chino had surpassed standards, but first-round evaluations of the California Institution for Women in Chino and the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco found that those prisons had not met minimum adherence levels...
LINK - SBSun.com
April 6, 2011
OIG Report: CDCR Health & Education Staff “Cheated on Timesheets”
Dozens of employees at a California state prison were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for hours they didn't work during a three-month sampling period last year, according to an inspector general's report released Wednesday.
Auditors found that one mental health employee averaged less than 27 hours of his scheduled 40-hour work week inside Mule Creek State Prison, which is 40 miles southeast of the state capital. Teachers spent as few as 33 hours inside the prison, but were paid for a 40-hour week.
"Many of the prison's mental health and educational employees were fully paid, but did not average working full days inside the prison," wrote acting Inspector General Bruce Monfross...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
March 29, 2011
Health Care Expands For Ex-Offenders In California
Like thousands of people who leave prison every year in California, Stanley Riley has serious health problems and no money for treatment.
During his 13 years of incarceration for robbery and an assortment of drug crimes, he could count on getting medication for high blood pressure and diabetes. But when he was released in 2008, all he got was a standard issue three-month supply.
"That scares you," Riley, 54, says. "They already knew I was going to have a problem. They already knew it was not going to be that easy."
Now help is on the way. In coming months, local governments in California stand to gain tens of millions of dollars in federal funds to care for the indigent, including ex-offenders...
LINK - KaiserHealthNews.org
December 10, 2010
Viewpoints: Time to split up corrections department
As noted in my op-ed in September, the receivership has made substantial progress in turning around prison medical care and controlling costs, and to finish the job, we need to spin off prison health care from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation so that health care can receive appropriate attention by a separate organization devoted to health care. The corrections department's mission is not health care; it is confinement.
Spinning off health care is only part of the solution to fixing our correctional system. Health care is not the only function that has been struggling. As of today, the "R" in CDCR exists in name only since rehabilitation programs have been decimated by budget cuts. The parole system has seen repeated failures, and even at its best, is woefully under-resourced. The juvenile program functions under the watchful eye of a state court judge.
The department has become impossible to manage given the huge scope of its operations, the unrelenting overcrowding, and the tension between day-to-day operational improvement and crisis management driven by periodic bad headlines. It is time to reorganize CDCR into smaller organizational pieces to improve focus on discrete functions and to strengthen transparency and accountability for operations...
LINK - SacBee.com
December 3, 2010
Supreme Court hears Calif. inmate health care case
A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed willing Tuesday to uphold a federal court panel's authority to order California to reduce the population of its crowded prisons as a step toward improving its woeful health care system for inmates.
In more than an hour of arguments, some justices suggested they would narrow the San Francisco-based panel's August 2009 order that required the state to transfer or release 40,000 prisoners in two years.
But the state's arguments - that the release order exceeded judicial authority, was unnecessary to improve prison health care and could endanger Californians - drew skeptical responses from at least five of the nine justices...
LINK - SFGate.com
September 14, 2010
Fed Receiver Kelso wants prison health care separated from CDCR
Eighteen months ago, I promised to reduce prison medical costs by up to $500 million while improving the quality of care ("Prison health care reform can save money"; Viewpoints, March 16, 2009). Now that the 2009-10 fiscal year has ended, it is time for me to report on my promise.
We began the year anticipating our expenditures would be $2.146 billion. During the year, we implemented substantial changes to improve quality of care while simultaneously reducing unnecessary costs. The result? A reduction of $408 million in our expenditures. That is almost a 20 percent reduction and just over 80 percent of what I had forecast 18 months ago. My executive team and staff in the 33 institutions deserve the credit for this success...
LINK - SacBee.com
August 28, 2010
Judge calls disabled inmate care in California poor
A federal judge says in a sharply worded tentative ruling that California's prison system -- which has two locations in Vacaville -- still does a poor job of identifying and caring for developmentally disabled inmates nine years after the state agreed to improve services.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's preliminary order, dated Thursday, rejects corrections officials' bid to end court oversight of the 2001 settlement.
To the contrary, he tentatively ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to submit a new plan to improve employee training and to better identify developmentally disabled inmates, saying he doubts the state can correct the problems on its own...
LINK - TheReporter.com
May 21, 2010
Audit: Effect of CDCR Operations on the State Budget
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation:
Inmates Sentenced Under the Three Strikes Law and a Small Number of Inmates Receiving Specialty Health Care Represent Significant Costs
HIGHLIGHTS
Our review of California's increasing prison cost as a proportion of the state budget and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (Corrections) operations revealed the following:
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Inmates incarcerated under the three strikes law (striker inmates):
- Make up 25 percent of the inmate population as of April 2009.
- Receive sentences that are, on average, nine years longer-resulting in about $19.2 billion in additional costs over the duration of their incarceration.
- Include many individuals currently convicted for an offense that is not a strike, were convicted of committing multiple serious or violent offenses on the same day, and some that committed strikeable offenses as a juvenile.
-
Inmate health care costs are significant to the cost of housing inmates. In fiscal year 2007-08, $529 million was incurred for contracted services by specialty health care providers. Additionally:
- 30 percent of the inmates receiving such care cost more than $427 million.
- The costs for the remaining 70 percent averaged just over $1,000 per inmate.
- The costs for those inmates who died during the last quarter ranged from $150 for one inmate to more than $1 million for another
- A significant portion of the increased workload due to medical guarding and transportation is covered through overtime.
- The large leave balances of custody staff, to which the furlough program has contributed a significant amount, will eventually cost the State from $546 million to more than $1 billion.
April 8, 2010
CDCR: New MRSA Policy & Training Procedures
CDCR HQ has issued a memo (see attached) directing all institutions to develop local MRSA procedures. Therefore, if they have not already begun, local institutional management will shortly begin to develop the local MRSA IIPPs which will include site specific issues. The statewide MRSA settlement agreement allows for local discussion regarding the content of the local MRSA OPs.
We suggest you contact your Warden as soon as possible to set up meetings for discussion regarding MRSA issues. Some areas of consideration when reviewing the local MRSA policy may include...
April 4, 2010
Fed Receiver, Locals (in Stockton) Just Keep Pounding Away At Each Other
"We're equally frustrated that it's taken us this long to get to this situation," J. Clark Kelso, the federal prison receiver, said last week.
Kelso and Brett Morgan, chief of staff of the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, met with The Record's editorial board a few days after the board met with local officials who have litigation pending against the project.
They wanted to give their side of the medical prison impasse. About 10 days ago, the board, of which I am a member, met with about eight officials from the city of Stockton and San Joaquin County who came in to discuss the 1,734-bed inmate medical facility proposed for the shuttered Karl Holton Youth Correctional Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility on Arch Road, east of Highway 99 and southeast of Stockton...
LINK - Recordnet.com
March 16, 2010
Calif prison receiver seeks release of ill inmates
The federal receiver who runs California's prison health care system said Tuesday he will ask state lawmakers to approve four bills to control spiraling costs - including proposals to restrict prisons' use of prescription drugs and outside medical specialists and to parole the sickest and costliest inmates.
J. Clark Kelso is set to announce the plan Wednesday amid calls from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers for him to cut $811 million from his budget next year to bring California's spending on inmates closer to what it costs in other states.
Kelso told The Associated Press he needs all four bills to cut about $350 million. He is looking for other ways to make up the rest of the roughly 40 percent cut to his budget...
LINK - SacBee.com
March 6, 2010
Delaware: Good bye CMS
Twenty-four companies have submitted bids to provide health care services at Delaware's prisons
Four of them are from Delaware, and many critics of the current health care provider, St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services, say a local contractor is needed to help lift the Department of Correction from under the federal scrutiny it's been under for almost four years.
"The good news is that the deplorable tenure and administration of [Correctional Medical Services] will come to an end," said the Rev. Christopher Bullock, senior pastor of New Canaan Baptist Church and co-founder of the Delaware Coalition for Prison Reform and Justice. "Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a new day for Delaware corrections..."
LINK - DelawareOnline.com
March 5, 2010
Mississippi: Wexford under fire
On February 25, a small crowd gathered outside the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, to push for the release of sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, who are serving two consecutive life sentences apiece for a 1993 armed robbery in which no one was injured and the take, by most accounts, was about $11. Supporters of the Scott sisters have long tried to draw attention to their case, as an extreme example of the distorted justice and Draconian sentencing policies that have overloaded prisons, crippled state budgets, and torn families apart across the United States. But in recent months, their cause has taken on a new urgency, because for Jamie Scott, an unwarranted life sentence may soon become a death sentence.
Jamie Scott, 38, is suffering from kidney failure. At the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Pearl, where Jamie and Gladys are incarcerated, medical services are provided by a private contractor called Wexford, which has been the subject of lawsuits and legislative investigations in several states over inadequate treatment of the inmates in its care. According to Jamie Scott's family, in the six weeks since her condition became life-threatening, she has endured faulty or missed dialysis sessions, infections, and other complications. She has received no indication that a kidney transplant is being considered as an option, though her sister is a willing donor...
LINK - IndyBay.org
February 9, 2010
Valley Fever cases up in Coalinga, but last week they were down?
The number of inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga who have been infected by Valley fever has increased in the last year, contrary to a recent Fresno County grand jury report.
In 2008, 159 cases were diagnosed, according to the Fresno County Public Health Department. Last year, the number of cases nearly doubled, rising to 311.
In its Jan. 25 report, the grand jury stated that the number of monthly cases had dropped by more than half. "Statistics show a definite drop in cases and the grand jury believes that the medical staff should be commended," the report said. The report didn't indicate the source of the statistics or the time frame in which the change had occurred. A spokeswoman for Fresno County Superior Court, which oversees the grand jury, said the grand jury's policy is not to comment on reports…
LINK - FresnoBee.com
February 4, 2010
Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso on prisons, privatization
J. Clark Kelso has a long history as a "fix-it" man in state government. In his latest assignment, as the federal receiver in charge of prison health care, he's been tasked with fixing a system so dysfunctional it's become a national symbol of what's wrong with corrections.
But the McGeorge Law School professor also has a long academic career under his belt. And it is in his role as a legal expert that we can find clues to his performance as a powerful prison overseer.
In his many years of writings for academic journals and also opining on legislation, a portrait emerges of a man with clear ideas about how we got into our current mess — and how we might get out of it. He has also shown a willingness to offer opinions that put him at odds with some of the most powerful institutions in the state, including judges, the Department of Corrections and the powerful state prison guards' union…
LINK - Capitolweekly.net
February 1, 2010
Special Review: California Prison Health Care Receivership 2007-2008
Special Review of California Prison Health Care Receivership Corporation Use of State Funds for Fiscal Year 2007-2008 as conducted by David R. Shaw, Inspector General of the California Office of the Inspector General (OIG): Our review found that the receivership spent $51.2 million during the year for its operating costs and long-term capital assets purchased on behalf of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This amount represents four percent of the $1.4 billion spent in fiscal year 2007-2008 to provide medical care to CDCR's adult inmate population. The largest expense category was capital assets, for which the receivership spent $28.7 million. In addition, the receivership spent $13.5 million on professional fees, $7.3 million on employee compensation and benefits, and $1.7 million on other expenses and travel...
January 26, 2010
Stockton v. Kelso Lawsuit “on hold”
A jurisdictional decision involving a lawsuit against federal prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso will have to wait eight more weeks.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton said Monday that he will rule March 22 on the motion by Stockton attorney Steve Herum, who wants his lawsuit over construction of an inmate medical center to be heard in San Joaquin County Superior Court.
[…]
Herum wants to force the state to pay millions in concessions to ensure the facility does as little harm as possible to the community…
LINK - RecordNet.com
December 15, 2009
Sac Bee opines on prisons, budget, Kelso and CDCR
Whom should the public hold responsible for runaway overtime costs for prison health care?
The governor and California's dysfunctional Legislature are largely to blame, followed by a prison health care bureaucracy overseen by a federal receiver who has failed to protect taxpayers.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers consistently approve budgets that understate the true cost of prison health care, and therefore understate the numbers of nurses, nurse assistants, clinicians, doctors and others who are needed to provide the minimum care required under the state and U.S. constitutions. That in turn leads to the eye-popping overtime costs The Bee's Charles Piller documented in his recent report…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 15, 2009
Mike Machado, John Garamendi Jr. hired to promote Stockton prison hospital
With a lawsuit pending against the state, a former state legislator from Linden and the son of Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, have been hired to tell the community why a large prison hospital would be good for the county.
Mike Machado, who represented much of San Joaquin County in the Assembly and State Senate in the 1990s and the current decade, and John Garamendi Jr., were hired for the lobbying positions. They began work on Monday.
Machado, Garamendi and three other members of the Ochoa & Moore law firm in Sacramento will try to convince people in San Joaquin County that the prison hospital would be an asset rather than a liability…
LINK - LodiNews.com
December 15, 2009
Kelso talks about budget, staffing problems in CDCR
Responding to a Bee investigation of severe problems in clinical staffing of state prisons, health care receiver J. Clark Kelso said at a news conference on Monday that budget shortfalls and management lapses underlie staffing pressures at some prisons.
The Bee reported that a costly 24-hour suicide-watch program often relies on highly paid nurses for the uncomplicated task, rather than using assistants who earn far less – and that many prisoners exploit the program by feigning suicidal thoughts. Suicide watch cost the prisons $750,000 in a single month last year.
"Is that a management failure, or a budgeting failure?" Kelso said of the cost. "Probably something in between…"
LINK - SacBee.com
December 14, 2009
Spending spree in CDCR/Fed Reciever - nurses paid $393 per hour?
Anna Marie Antonio, a nurse practitioner who has worked at the California Medical Facility prison in Vacaville, is golden.
Antonio may be a superb clinician. But her sparkle lies in payments for her services by the court-appointed receiver who manages health care in California's prisons. Antonio's temporary employment agency, or registry, collected $393 per hour for her work – more than six times the average paid to state employees for the same work.
When Antonio learned of the rate from a reporter, she gasped: "Wow!"…
LINK - SacBee.com
December 14, 2009
Rampant OT fuels prison health cost
California's prison health-care employees work hard — or so it would seem by their schedules. Many average 12 hours a day; others routinely log 16- to 18-hour shifts for months on end, creating a costly overtime free-for-all in this budget-strapped state.
An abundance of forced and voluntary overtime has driven some nurses beyond human endurance. In the process, the long hours have opened the door for deadly lapses in a health-care system just beginning to recover from decades of neglect…
LINK - FresnoBee.com
December 14, 2009
Report: Fewer inmates dying in California prisons
For the second year in a row, fewer people are dying in California prisons, according to a federal receiver who's trying to improve California's prison health care system in an inmate mortality report set to be released today.
For the second year in a row, fewer people are dying in California prisons, according to a federal receiver who's trying to improve California's prison health care system in an inmate mortality report set to be released today.
The report says that between 2006 and 2008 the rate of death among California inmates declined 13 percent…
LINK - SCPR.org
November 27, 2009
Fed receiver Kelso seeks to move Stockton’s prison expansion lawsuit to federal court
Prison health-care receiver J. Clark Kelso has filed a notice to move a lawsuit filed against him over a proposed inmate medical center near Stockton to federal court in Sacramento.
The move drew criticism from local leaders as being "intellectually dishonest in the extreme."
The Stockton Greater Chamber of Commerce, city of Stockton and San Joaquin County filed suit in the San Joaquin County Superior Court on Nov. 17 in an attempt to force millions of dollars in concessions from the state…
LINK - Recordnet.com
October 21, 2009
Prison hospital to be built in Stockton
A major prison hospital, housing up to 1,734 inmates, is to be built in Stockton on the site of the currently abandoned Karl Holton Youth Correctional Facility that is on the grounds of the Northern California Youth Correctional Center.
Construction of the sub acute medical and mental health care facility is expected to cost $1.1 billion, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Work on the project is expected to begin next year, with completion in about 24 months. During the seven-month peak construction period, construction activities would require up to 1,700 construction workers per day…
LINK - CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com
For those of you interested in the math:
Proposed cost: $1,100,000,000
Proposed number of beds: 1,734
Cost per bed: $634,371.39 ($1,100,000,000 ÷ 1,734 = $634,371.39)
Really?
September 27, 2009
One prison expansion off; two moving forward
The state has called off an expansion of Tehachapi's state prison to relieve overcrowding but still plans to add onto prisons in Wasco and Delano.
State and federal officials determined that some Assembly Bill 900 funds identified for infill beds need to be spent on healthcare beds instead, said Deborah Hysen, chief deputy secretary of facility planning, construction and management at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The federal courts have mandated that California bring medical care in prisons up to constitutional standards. A receiver is overseeing the work…
LINK - Bakersfield.com
September 20, 2009
Study: Poor mental health treatment contribues to California inmate suicides
Suicide rates inside California's prison system continue to exceed national rates, partly because state prison officials provide inadequate treatment, intervention and assessment of troubled inmates, a new report concludes.
The report, filed in federal court as part of a pending suit against the state seeking to remedy unconstitutional mental health care for prisoners, studied all 34 inmate suicides from 2007 and found some who should have been placed under mental health care screening but were not and cases where cardiopulmonary resuscitation was not performed quickly enough or properly.
Some inmates assessed as having "severe" suicide risks were not handled properly, and documentation on some of the suicides was so sloppy that required reporting on them still has not been completed, the study found…
LINK - SacBee.com
September 17, 2009
State wants control over inmates’ health care
A state lawyer argued Wednesday that California should regain control of its prison health care system, saying a federal judge had no authority to appoint a receiver to run inmates' treatment in 2006.
The argument drew a skeptical response from a federal appeals judge, who noted that California has argued before a different court that there was no need to reduce the prison population to improve health care because the receiver was in charge of the system.
Judge Michael Hawkins of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration didn't object in 2005 when the judge hearing the prison health case, Thelton Henderson, announced plans to remove the medical system from state control and turn it over to a receiver as a last resort to meet constitutional standards…
LINK - SFGate.com
August 11, 2009
Prison medical czar will slash rates paid to outside hospitals
The man in charge of improving California's prison medical care plans to slash the rate the state pays to treat inmates. The plan could save the state $50 million this year. But as KPCC's Julie Small reports, it could also discourage hospitals from providing care that prison hospitals can't.
Julie Small: California prisons aren't able to treat inmates with chronic illnesses or inmates in need of special care, so they send them to hospitals for treatment. But Clark Kelso, the federal receiver in charge of prison medical care, says that's grown too costly for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Clark Kelso: For quite a period of time, CDCR has paid rates that have basically subsidized various hospitals' bottom line, and the state just can't afford it anymore…
LINK - SCPR.org
July 30, 2009
Swine flu at Ironwood, Chuckawalla and Chino
…Meanwhile, state prison officials on Wednesday said, eight state prisons, including three in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, had isolated or limited the movement and visitation privileges of hundreds of inmates because of suspected and confirmed swine flu-like cases.
Since July 16, more than 730 inmates at Chino State Men's Institution at Chino have been quarantined after 13 men became ill with flu-like symptoms, said Luis Patino, spokesman for California Prison Health Care Services. Seven of the sick inmates were confirmed to have swine flu, he said.
Ironwood State Prison in Blythe had two confirmed and four suspected swine flu cases since July 16, Patino said. Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe had three confirmed and 55 suspected swine flu cases since June 30, he said.
Patino didn't immediately know how many inmates were being quarantined at Ironwood or Chuckawalla…
LINK - PE.com (The Press-Enterprise)
July 16, 2009
Four Confirmed Swine Flu Cases at Idaho Prison
Test results received from cultures sent to the Idaho State laboratory on Tuesday have confirmed that four inmates housed at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise have contracted the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. As a continued measure to control the spread of infection, prison officials say, access will be restricted to staff only — until such time as it is determined that the possibility of contracting the virus has passed.
According to spokeswoman Linda Sevison, "Per standard protocol, facility management and health services staff are working closely with the Idaho Department of Health and Human Services and officials with the Idaho Department of Corrections. Education on proper hygiene practices will continue for staff and inmates. The medical needs of the affected inmates are being provided for by facility medical staff."
The Idaho Correctional Center is a 1,805-bed facility located south of Boise and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. The facility opened in 2000 and is operated under contract with and oversight by the Idaho Department of Correction…
LINK - KIVITV.com
July 9, 2009
Swine flu outbreak at San Quentin limits inmate intake
An outbreak of swine flu at San Quentin State Prison led officials today to limit the acceptance of new inmates from 19 Northern California counties and halt the transfer of prisoners to other correctional facilities.
Nearly half the prison's 5,153 inmates have been placed under quarantine after 47 exhibited flu-like symptoms for the H1N1 virus and four probable cases were identified, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The decisions to limit transfers, keep some prisoners quarantined and stop visits from the public to the affected housing units were approved "in an attempt to minimize the spread of the virus," agency officials said in a statement…
LINK - LATimes.com
July 9, 2009
Newspaper slams CDCR & Gov over prison crisis
Considering the shameful foot-dragging that California has already demonstrated when it comes to fulfilling a federal court order to improve health and mental health care for prison inmates, the governor's recent rejection of a plan to build two prison hospitals should come as no surprise.
The plan, hammered out by federal court-appointed receiver J. Clark Kelso and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate, seemed workable when it was announced last month. It called for building two prison hospitals — one in Northern California, the other in Southern California — to house 3,400 inmates. The $1.9 billion price tag would be paid from already-approved bonds designated for prison construction.
The plan was pared significantly from an $8 billion attention-getting proposal put forth by the receiver, who for months couldn't even get prison officials to sit down and talk with him about what was needed. The ploy worked, and the two-hospital solution was the result…
LINK - TheReporter.com
July 6, 2009
San Quentin H1N1 Quarantine Expanded
A limited quarantine imposed at San Quentin State Prison last week because of four probable cases of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, has now been expanded to quarantine 2,100 inmates, a prison health care spokesman said Monday.
The quarantine began last week after four inmates suffering from an out-of-season flu were found to have a 97 percent chance of having the H1N1 virus and 26 others showed potential symptoms of the virus…
LINK - CBS5.com
June 25, 2009
Schwarzenegger rejects inmate health care plan
The Schwarzenegger administration has rejected a plan designed to end years of litigation over inmate medical care in California's prison system.
In a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate tells a court-appointed receiver that the state cannot afford the $1.9 billion fix.
It cites legislation signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 that provides about $8 billion for prison construction, including $1 billion dedicated to health care improvements…
LINK - ChicoER.com (Chico Enterprise-Record)
June 24, 2009
State gets cheaper prison doctors
California's "prison czar," Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso, says he's hammered out new deals to get physicians for the state's prisons at a cheaper rate — $201.50 an hour.
That compares to previous contracts that had California taxpayers shelling out as much as $414 an hour for a physician, he says.
Two of the three new contracts are between California Prison Health Care Services and their largest physician registry providers — NOAH Inc. and Registry of Physician Specialist Inc. The third is with South Shores Medical Group Inc., which is also expected to be one of the largest providers in the coming year…
LINK - CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com
June 23, 2009
Plenty of waste still could be cut out of prison system
What happens when ordinary citizens use a newspaper column to expose at least $100 million, and possibly much more, in government waste at a time when critical state services are being cut because of the most serious cash crunch in generations?
Not very much, at least not yet.
Almost precisely six months ago, readers through this column alerted the court-appointed receiver who runs California's prison health care system to several areas where big money was being wasted in his bailiwick.
"We paid attention, we knew you'd follow up," said the receiver, University of Pacific law professor Clark Kelso. "We've made some changes and we're going to make others. But we've also had some problems…"
LINK - MercuryNews.com
June 17, 2009
Judge sets deadline for Calif. prison decision
A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Schwarzenegger administration 15 days to sign an agreement intended to reform the health care system for California inmates and end a long and costly legal dispute.
Failure to do so would prompt a potential raid on the state treasury, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton warned.
Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate negotiated the tentative agreement last month with J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver overseeing prison medical reform…
LINK - SacBee.com
June 17, 2009
Federal judge to hear Corrections plan on care for mentally ill inmates
The pressure's on California's Department of Corrections to ink a deal by tomorrow to provide mental health care to inmates. A federal judge in Sacramento has ordered the state to present a final plan on how to get the job done. KPCC's Julie Small reports the state's had more than a decade to comply.
Julie Small: Attorneys for inmates sued California in the 1990s for failing to provide adequate treatment for thousands of prisoners with mental illnesses. The state settled the suit with an agreement to build new psychiatric care facilities and hire qualified staff. But Michael Bien, the attorney for the inmates, says little has changed…
LINK - SCPR.org
June 1, 2009
Paring Plans on Health Care in California Prisons
The court-appointed receiver charged with improving the health system in California prisons and establishing a constitutionally acceptable level of care has had to scale back his plans significantly because of the state's economic troubles, federal and state officials say.
Under a new deal, the state would pay more than $3 billion to build two prison hospitals and renovate other facilities to create 5,000 beds for ill inmates.
Those terms are much more modest than the improvements urged last year by the receiver, J. Clark Kelso. Judge Thelton E. Henderson of Federal District Court in San Francisco had ordered the state to pay for an $8 billion plan to build 10,000 prison hospital beds…
LINK - NYTimes.com (The New York Times)
May 29, 2009
States are expanding videoconferencing in prisons
Faced with the high costs of transporting and escorting sick inmates to the doctor, states are expanding their use of videoconferencing to provide health consultations to prisoners without resorting to costly — and sometimes dangerous — off-site trips. And the concept is growing beyond medical care.
Illinois is considering joining at least 26 other states that use telemedicine to help sick prisoners get advice from doctors, said Derek Schnapp, a spokesman with the state Department of Corrections. State prison officials recently met with their counterparts from Texas, which has been using telemedicine for years and is considered a national leader, to discuss whether it should be introduced in Illinois.
Elsewhere, videoconferencing in prisons and jails is replacing inmates' in-person trips to the courtroom or parole board, and even the way family members visit…
LINK - Richmond TimesDispatch.com
May 28, 2009
CDCR cuts deal with fed receiver to build 3,400 more beds (while pursuing layoffs?)
The Schwarzenegger administration and a federal court appointee have agreed to the framework of a legal settlement to overhaul the way medical care is delivered to prison inmates.
The outline of the proposal was given Thursday to The Associated Press and would be the first step toward ending a long-running legal drama that appeared headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The proposed agreement, if accepted by the federal courts and the Legislature, would call for a sharply scaled-down and far less expensive plan to improve poor inmate medical care than the one the federal receiver previously presented…
LINK - SacBee.com
May 26, 2009
Mental-health center could be built at California Men’s Colony
The California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo has been targeted for a $63.7 million facility where state prison inmates would be treated during mental-health crises, CMC officials say.
The state Department of Public Works is overseeing the planning of the stand-alone building at the prison and aims to have it open by 2013.
State prison officials say funding for the project would come from California's lease-revenue bond pot designated for jail construction under Assembly Bill 900. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill in 2007; it appropriates $1.2 billion for jail construction through bonds…
LINK - SanLuisObispo.com
May 4, 2009
Likely swine flu case stops California prison visits
The state prison system halt on visits from family, friends and volunteers was described as "precautionary." It was triggered by word that an inmate in Centinela State Prison in Imperial County was diagnosed as probable for having the H1N1 virus, or swine flu.
"The inmate and his cellmate have been isolated," said Luis Patino, spokesman for the Office of the Receiver for California Prison Health Care Services. "They remain at the prison."
Patino said the sick inmate's symptoms were mild…
LINK - SacBee.com
May 3, 2009
2 swine flu cases are confirmed in O.C.
…As of 2:30 p.m. Sunday, the California Department of Public Health counts 29 confirmed cases and 130 probable cases (up from 110 probable cases reported Saturday). That total includes nine probable cases from Orange County, rather than the Orange County Health Care Agency's latest information of seven probable and two confirmed cases.
Also Sunday, an inmate at a state prison in the Imperial Valley is the first known case of swine flu in the state's correctional system, and visiting hours and other activities at the prison 120 miles east of San Diego have been suspended, state officials said.
The inmate is only mildly affected, has been isolated and is getting appropriate medical care, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said…
LINK - OCRegister.com
April 17, 2009
Tuberculosis scare puts Lancaster prison on lockdown
Medical staff will begin testing all inmates and staff today at California State Prison-Los Angeles County in Lancaster after a case of tuberculosis developed on prison grounds, and the facility went on lockdown.
The prison at 44750 60th Street West houses about 4,600 male inmates, both short-term and long-term, under minimum, medium and maximum security. About 1,900 employees work there.
Officials did not say whether the infected person was an inmate or a prison employee…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
April 11, 2009
Correctional Training Facility in Soledad ranks fifth worst in California for prison health care
The two prisons stand smack in the middle of the Salinas Valley, separated by just 6 miles of fertile farmland.
AdvertisementBut when it comes to the condition of their health-care facilities, the lockups are worlds apart, a state analysis shows.
Of California's 33 prisons, the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad is the fifth most in need of immediate health-care-facility upgrades, according to the California Prison Health Care Receivership…
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
March 25, 2009
Judge threatens Calif. officials with contempt
A federal judge is threatening to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in contempt if they don't quickly come up with a plan to take care of thousands of mentally ill inmates.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento says he is appalled by evidence the state is not capable of doing its duty.
He called it "mind-boggling" that the state still doesn't have a mental health treatment plan 14 years after a class-action lawsuit was first filed on behalf of inmates…
LINK - SFGate.com
March 24, 2009
Judge Retains Prison Receivership, State to Appeal
A federal judge in San Francisco today turned down a bid by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to end a court-supervised receivership of the state's prison health care system.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said he had no confidence that improvements in prison health care would continue if he returned control of prison health care to the state.
The judge said in a 24-page ruling that he attributed the vast majority of improvements in the past several years to the receivership…
LINK - CBS5.com
March 12, 2009
3 aides to Calif prison receiver quit
The top three aides to California's embattled court-appointed prison receiver have abruptly quit. An e-mail obtained Thursday by The Associated Press from the trio to the receiver's staff and outside attorneys says the three are leaving "effective immediately."
The resignations come five days before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration asks a federal judge to end the receivership, which controls medical care in the state's 33 adult prisons.
Chief of Staff John Hagar, his assistant Steve Weston and Terry Hill, the chief medical officer, cite "irreconcilable differences" over the "new direction of the receivership" under receiver J. Clark Kelso. Kelso took over a year ago…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
February 16, 2009
Valley fever rates up in San Joaquin Valley
When the spores are inhaled by people and animals, it can lead to lung infections. Most people infected exhibit no symptoms, but 40 percent develop an illness that mimics the flu. Those most susceptible can develop potentially fatal liver, lung and spleen damage.
More than three-fourths of all California cases occurred in the San Joaquin Valley.
California's numbers spiked in 2006 when 514 inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison near Coalinga developed valley fever during construction on an adjoining state hospital. One corrections officer died in 2005, and nearly 100 employees and more than 900 inmates were sickened over several years…
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
February 14, 2009
State does in-depth review of Youth Correctional Facility
The state's corrections chief toured the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility Friday and met with a group of county leaders to discuss the site's future as officials consider consolidating and closing some juvenile facilities.
The facility on Wright Road in Camarillo, which houses juvenile female offenders, has been eyed by a federal receiver tasked with improving healthcare in California prisons as a possible site for prison hospital.
After touring the facility, a reception center in Norwalk earlier in the day and talking to wards and staff at both locations, Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in an interview that he wanted to meet with local community leaders "to get their ideas on how we might utilize Ventura."…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
February 11, 2009
Underutilized youth prison will be continuing target
It may be a bit too soon to write the obituary for the proposal to replace the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility near Camarillo with a healthcare prison for adults, but preliminary funeral arrangements seem to be in order.
The decision last week by federal prison healthcare receiver J. Clark Kelso to put a vastly scaled-down construction proposal on the table was a clear sign of retreat — an acknowledgement that the state's crippling fiscal crisis requires a more modest plan to improve the dreadful health-treatment conditions inside California's overcrowded prisons. Kelso's least-expensive option would take Camarillo out of the picture…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
February 8, 2009
California prison medical czar offers cheaper plans
Saying he was "cognizant" of the state's budget woes, California's prison medical czar offered policymakers some cheaper alternatives Friday to his $8 billion plan to achieve a constitutional level of inmate health care.
But state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who has emerged as the chief nemesis of federal receiver J. Clark Kelso's plans, denounced the new options as "flimflam." California corrections chief Matthew Cate said the receiver's plans need more analysis and overstate how many more medical beds the state really needs.
Kelso's cheapest plan offered Friday would cost $2.5 billion and provide 5,000 beds for medically impaired prisoners – not the psychiatric cases – at existing prisons. It would cost $480 million a year to operate, or $96,000 per inmate…
LINK - SacBee.com
February 8, 2009
My View: Inmates’ behavior fuels prison health crisis
In the debate over funding a constitutionally adequate prison health care system in California, most people, including politicians and administrators, are missing a key point – the role of personal responsibility.
I worked in the Health Care Services Division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR, for nearly eight years. I was appalled by the system's inability to prevent or discourage irresponsible behavior by prisoners that resulted in substantial medical bills for CDCR, ultimately paid by the overburdened taxpayer. No one seems to be talking about this vexing problem.
J. Clark Kelso, the federal receiver for California's prison health care system, wants $8 billion in taxpayer funds for construction of expanded prison health and housing facilities for the burgeoning prison population. The price alone is enough to outrage many Californians who believe that the state cannot afford such expenditures when it's suffering a major budget deficit…
LINK - SacBee.com
February 7, 2009
Prison condom program still causing controversy
Today's observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day comes as a controversial program which provides California State Prison, Solano inmates access to condoms moves into its fourth month. African Americans comprise a disproportionate amount of the state and national HIV/AIDS cases. They also make up a disproportionate sect of the incarcerated population.
Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger approved the creation of one-year Prisoner Condom Access Pilot Program at California State Prison, Solano in Vacaville, which began in November 2008. The program is controversial because having sex in prison is illegal and many feel providing condoms to inmates is condoning illegal behavior…
LINK - TimesHeraldOnline.com
February 7, 2009
Camarillo may be dropped as prison health site
Prison healthcare receiver J. Clark Kelso today submitted three construction options to the federal court — including a pared-down plan that would eliminate the possibility of building a prison healthcare facility in Camarillo.
The least expansive option proposes just three facilities with a combined 5,000 beds exclusively for inmates with medical needs.
Kelso is asking the courts to convene hearings to take comments from state officials and plaintiffs representing inmates…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
February 4, 2009
Skirmish over state prison yoga rooms intensifies
The battle over California prison inmates' constitutional rights has come down to this: finger-pointing over who dreamed up the idea of giving convicted criminals taxpayer-funded bingo and yoga rooms.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown have lambasted effortsby J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed overseer of prison healthcare, to spend $8 billion on a "gold-plated utopian hospital plan" for 10,000 inmates. It features a "holistic" environment with natural light and space for yoga, music, horticulture and art therapy.
On Tuesday, Kelso fired back, saying that the facilities are meant for mentally ill inmates, and that he had simply followed the state's example for treating them. The evidence? Sexual predators forced to live at Coalinga State Hospital, which opened on Schwarzenegger's watch, have access to an electronic bingo board, a state-of-the-art gymnasium with a rubberized floor, a weight room and eight landscaped atriums…
LINK - LATimes.com
February 3, 2009
Doubt cast on need for Camarillo prison hospital
In a cost-cutting move that could affect plans for a prison hospital near Camarillo, federal receiver J. Clark Kelso said Tuesday he will present a number of recommendations to the court and state, including eliminating mental health care from proposed prison facilities.
The change would drive down the number of proposed prison hospitals statewide from seven to three. The hospital slated for land outside Camarillo is fourth or fifth on the list.
Kelso disclosed the recommendations amid ongoing criticism by state Attorney General Jerry Brown and the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over building prisoner facilities that would include therapy rooms, basketball courts and landscaping…
LINK - Ventura County Star
February 1, 2009
Chino awaits judge’s ruling for prison hospital plans
State officials are awaiting a judge's ruling in their suit seeking an end to the federal receivership overseeing state prison health care and its construction program.
That program includes plans to build a large new prison hospital in Chino, which local officials and residents have opposed.
The attorney general, on behalf of the governor and the state Department of Corrections, filed a motion in U.S. District Court last week asking a court to remove the receiver who has "simply gone too far" in proposing expensive changes to the system…
LINK - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
February 1, 2009
Audit board finds faulty contracting involving Calif. prison health system
Officials running California's prison healthcare system violated state and federal rules when awarding about $28 million in information technology contracts in 2007 and 2008, according to a report from the Bureau of State Audits. And identifying all IT contracts awarded is not possible because Corrections Department and other databases are incomplete or inaccurate, according to the audit. Eight out of 21 contracts reviewed, totaling $3.6 million, lacked required certifications stating that the purchases were necessary and were compatible with current IT systems. Four service contracts did not have evidence of compliance with bidding and award rules. One IT contract worth $190,400 was made using the wrong form, so it's unclear whether the vendor agreed to the terms and requirements necessary under law for that type of contract, according to the audit…
LINK - ModernHealthCare.com
February 1, 2009
California’s Health Care for Inmates: Prison or Versailles?
Of course California's prison inmates are entitled to reasonable 21st-century health care. Unfortunately for taxpayers, Clark Kelso, the federal receiver in charge of California's prison health care has, as state Attorney General Jerry Brown noted at a news conference last week, a "gold-plated wish list" for California's prison health care system.
His Receivership wants to spend $8 billion to build seven new hospitals, each the size of 10 Wal-Marts, which would create "a holistic environment," with "music therapy, art therapy and other recreation therapy functions," a music room, stress-reduction room, game room and "therapy kitchen," with lots of natural light and high ceilings. A gymnasium would feature a "full-size high school playing court with basketball hoops and built-in edge seating up to four rows deep. Various floor striping allows for other games, such as volleyball, etc. Other sport activities include handball courts, exercise, and (a) workout room…"
LINK - NationalLedger.com
January 29, 2009
California Asks Removal of Prison Overseer
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state attorney general, Jerry Brown, filed a motion on Wednesday in Federal District Court here to remove the receiver charged with overhauling California's decrepit prison health care system.
The motion comes on the heels of a demand by the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, for $8 billion from the state to build seven new prison health care centers with 10,000 beds for inmates. The motion seeks to halt construction plans and begin moving control of prison health care back to the state.
"What the receiver has become is a parallel government, operating virtually in secret, not accountable, not subject to public scrutiny," Mr. Brown said at a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Kelso, he said, "feels he has unchecked authority to ride roughshod over the State of California and its officials…"
LINK - NYTimes.com
January 22, 2009
Audit: Calif prison receiver gave no-bid contracts
Auditors say the office overseeing California's prison medical system made nearly $27 million in technology purchases without competitive bidding, violating state law.
The purchases were made under a former receiver and an information officer who have since been replaced.
Examiners with the Bureau of State Audits found that former employees made 49 no-bid purchases and signed a service contract with the same information technology company in 2007 and 2008…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
January 20, 2009
Receiver wants 7,000 inmates transferred
As many as 7,000 prisoners in Central Valley prisons must be transferred for their health, says Clark Kelso, the receiver appointed by court order to manage the prison system's health care.
Avenal State Prison, California State Prison in Corcoran, the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, and Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga fail to provide adequate health care. Mr. Kelso says.
"One yard at Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, for instance, is seven weeks behind in providing primary care appointments. This crisis has been caused by a variety of factors, including overcrowding, inadequate clinical space, rural isolation, inability to attract clinicians, and the CDCR policy of placing chronically ill populations at these remote institutions," Mr. Kelso says in a report…
LINK - CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com
December 10, 2008
Receiver ignores valid concerns, pushes ahead
Re: J. Clark Kelso's Dec. 3 commentary, "Federal receiver responds to prison hospital concerns":
Kelso's commentary ignores the legitimate concerns of Ventura County residents and attempts to gloss over the valid reasons why the Camarillo site is inappropriate for 1,500 state prisoners.
Kelso explains that hiring medical staff is impractical in remote regions, so his priority is to place facilities where "highly educated, trained and skilled staff are already available…"
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
December 10, 2008
Overcrowding brings fear of early release for inmates
Residents and local leaders have expressed concern about the possibility that nearly a third of California's inmates could be released in order to deal with prison overcrowding.
In a lawsuit brought on behalf of sick and mentally ill inmates, three federal judges in San Francisco are considering whether to release thousands of inmates early because the overcrowding has led to unconstitutional conditions.
Attorneys for inmates want the state's prison population reduced from 156,300 to 110,000…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
December 7, 2008
Vacaville could get new prison facilities
The federal receiver appointed to deal with state prison crowding is making plans to build a 1,400-bed inmate medical and mental health facility on land behind Vacaville's two state prisons.
The proposed site for the facility is within prison boundaries but would require removal of some orchard farmland behind Keating Park.
A public meeting on the project, designed to gather comments on what issues should be included in an environmental review of the plan, will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday at the Travis Credit Union Community Room, 1 Travis Way, Vacaville. It is open to the public…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
December 3, 2008
Editorial: Federal receiver responds to prison hospital concerns
As many of you are aware, the state of California has failed at every level for the past 20-plus years to address sorely lacking disease control that is hazardous to the public and the grossly inhumane conditions arising from substandard healthcare in its prisons. Because of this failure, a federal judge took the extraordinary measure of taking charge of the broken healthcare system and appointed a receiver to fix it. It is important to note that the state of California — the governor and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — agreed with all of the plans and decisions made by the federal judge in establishing the receivership.
In an effort to fix the system, we are working to site and build up to seven new correctional healthcare facilities around California. Due to the availability of underutilized state-owned property and proximity to urban areas, the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility is currently under consideration for one of these facilities…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
November 19, 2008
52,000 inmates could be set free
More than 13 years after a federal judge first ruled that healthcare services in California prisons violate constitutional standards, a high-stakes trial opened Tuesday to determine if overcrowding is the root cause of the problem — and if so, whether the remedy should be to release tens of thousands of inmates.
In a special proceeding required in cases that could result in capping inmate populations, a three-judge panel will decide first whether overcrowding is to blame for the prison system's failures. If the judges decide it is, they will reconvene next year to consider whether to order the state to limit the number of inmates to a more manageable number.
California's 33 prisons now house 156,000 inmates, about twice the number the facilities were designed to hold. Attorneys for the inmates have asked the court to limit the prison population to 104,000, or 130 percent of design capacity. To reach that number, they are asking that 52,000 inmates be released over a two-year period…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
November 15, 2008
Editorial: Outside prison bid just a stall tactic
A NEW PLAYER has surfaced in the ongoing saga dealing with California's broken prison inmate health-care system, the GEO Group Inc. of Florida. Just who is GEO Group? Some believe this is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's best chance for a great escape from federal courts, but we believe otherwise.
GEO Group is a private company that manages various prisons throughout the U.S. and other countries. The company has been lobbying the governor's office and the state Legislature since January, spending more than $300,000, with hopes of taking over California's prison system, and thus, giving the state a possible way out from a federal court mandate.
That mandate, which is currently being fought in court, could force California to pay $8 billion to clean up its inmate health care system. As a side note, the Florida firm contributed $50,000 last month to the Proposition 11 campaign, the redistricting initiative backed by Schwarzenegger…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
November 11, 2008
Firm bids to run Calif. inmate medical system
A private prison company that has been lobbying the Schwarzenegger administration and is a campaign contributor to the governor's causes has made a bid to operate an overhauled inmate medical system, a move that could conflict with court-ordered reforms, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
The offer by The GEO Group Inc. of Florida caught the court-appointed receiver overseeing reform of California's inmate health care system by surprise.
In the five-page internal memo obtained by the AP, the receiver's chief of staff repeatedly makes it clear that he believes the bid was solicited by the Schwarzenegger administration and questions the administration's motives…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
November 3, 2008
Group protests prison hospital proposal
Signs protesting a Ventura County prison hospital lined a Camarillo park Sunday, where members of a community group handed out fliers and answered questions about a proposal they say would change the quality of life in the county.
The proposal calls for converting the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility into a 1,500-bed adult prison healthcare facility. The facility for inmates with chronic medical and mental health problems is one of seven that court-appointed Receiver J. Clark Kelso envisions around the state as part of the effort to restore healthcare in California prisons to constitutional standards.
Members of the community-based Prison Hospital Action Committee, however, say the plan would undermine the county's medical system, lower home prices and threaten safety, among other consequences…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
October 28, 2008
Judge sets deadline for prison payment
Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson on Monday ordered state officials to pay $250 million toward construction of new prison healthcare facilities by Nov. 5.
If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or Controller John Chiang do not comply, Henderson scheduled a Nov. 12 hearing in his San Francisco courtroom at which they would have to show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court. If they are held in contempt of court, they could face fines of up to $3 million a day.
The order followed a hearing earlier in the day at which Assistant Attorney General Daniel Powell argued the court does not have the authority to "simply seize that money…"
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
October 9, 2008
S.J. to meet on prison care overhaul
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on Wednesday ordered state officials to explain in a hearing later this month how and when they will give federal prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso $250 million.
The San Francisco judge's order came as San Joaquin County officials announced an upcoming meeting with Kelso's staff to open a direct dialogue with the receiver's office about how his plans could hurt the local community's health care services.
Kelso seeks a total of $8 billion to build seven inmate medical centers to care for 10,000 mentally and physically ill state prisoners. Kelso plans to build the first 1,500-bed medical center southeast of Stockton…
LINK - Recordnet.com (The Record)
October 9, 2008
Judge sets hearing on funding for California prison medical care
A federal judge Wednesday gave state officials nearly three weeks to explain how they will transfer $250 million to the overseer of medical care in state prisons.
In his order, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson stopped short of finding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Controller John Chiang in contempt of court for refusing to turn over a total of $8 billion for new prison medical facilities sought by the overseer, J. Clark Kelso.
"This is an opportunity for the state to bring itself into partial compliance," Kelso said in an interview. "It obviously leaves a big chunk of the remaining funding unresolved. We're going to take this a step at a time…"
LINK - LATimes.com (The Los Angeles Times)
October 8, 2008
Hearing Set for State to Start Funding Prison Projects
A U.S. District Court judge is giving the state a few more weeks to determine how to make a $250 million down payment on prison health care projects.
The money was approved under Assembly Bill 900.
The court-appointed receiver for improving how state prisons provide health care to inmates, J. Clark Kelso, is also seeking a contempt citation against Gov. Schwarzenegger and State Controller John Chiang for failure to pay $8 billion earmarked for prison construction projects…
LINK - News10.net
October 7, 2008
Judge demands $250 million from California, stat
A federal judge seemed ready to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang to cough up $250 million in the next few weeks for prison health care construction.
But Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson isn't quite ready to hold the governor and controller in contempt of court, a move that could put California on the hook for millions of dollars in fines per day until state officials do the judge's bidding.
Henderson said the $8 billion price tag that his appointed receiver, J. Clark Kelso, has placed on construction required to bring the state's long-addled prison health care system up to constitutional snuff is "the best approximation that anyone can make at this time," and his orders have been clear that the state must pick up this tab…
LINK - InsideBayArea.com
October 7, 2008
Judge: Calif. must pay for prison health care
A federal judge has scolded California officials for failing to provide the billions of dollars a court-appointed receiver says is needed to upgrade the state's prison health care system.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson made it clear Monday he expects California to pay $8 billion for seven new inmate medical facilities. But he stopped short of immediately holding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt for failing to turn over the money.
Medical care in California's prisons is so bad it has been ruled unconstitutional. Henderson appointed a receiver to run the prison medical system after finding that an average of an inmate a week was dying from neglect or malpractice…
LINK - AP.Google.com (Associated Press/Google)
October 6, 2008
Federal prison receiver argues for $8 billion
A federal receiver seeking $8 billion to bring California's prison health care up to constitutional standards brought his case to a federal judge in San Francisco today.
Receiver J. Clark Kelso asked U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt if they didn't give Kelso the money. Kelso wants to build inmate medical centers, with the first such facility scheduled to be built just southeast of Stockton…
LINK - Recordnet.com (The Record)
October 6, 2008
Medical reform in Calif. prisons heads to court
With California struggling to pay its bills and facing another deficit, the receiver in charge of the state's inmate medical care will argue Monday for the right to take $8 billion from the state treasury.
The federal court hearing in San Francisco is one of two legal challenges weighing heavily on the California corrections department. In the other, a panel of three federal judges must decide whether to cap the state's inmate population to solve overcrowding.
Addressing both will be expensive. In addition to the billions for medical beds, the state has approved a $7.4 billion construction plan to add more space and relieve crowded prison conditions, although the program has been delayed amid partisan bickering in Sacramento…
LINK - SFGate.com (The San Francisco Gate)
October 4, 2008
Kelso to tell judge funds to build are not provided
Federal Prison Receiver J. Clark Kelso on Monday will ask the judge who appointed him to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang in contempt for failing to provide the funding needed to build prison healthcare facilities.
Kelso has devised an $8 billion "turnaround plan" that calls for the construction of seven stand-alone facilities that will provide medical and mental health care to about 10,000 inmates with chronic diseases. These facilities, he says, are necessary to bring California's prison healthcare system up to standards that do not violate the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
October 2, 2008
Camarillo prison hospital moves forward
An open letter to Ventura County residents, released last week from the federally appointed receiver assigned to develop a healthcare facility in Camarillo for incarcerated criminals, contained one basic message:
The controversial project is going forth with all engines firing.
The Sept. 23 note, so far the only direct, formal communication J. Clark Kelso has had with members of the community, was written as a means to assuage the buildup of concern about the proposed 1,500-bed center slated for construction sometime next year…
LINK - VCReporter.com (The Ventura County Reporter)
September 29, 2008
Calif. AG wants disclosure of prison plan
California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a motion in federal court on Friday, demanding public disclosure of Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso's $8 billion construction plan.
The move is the latest in a simmering legal and political battle between the state's prison officials, their powerful lobby and the state's top political leaders. "If public money is being spent," Brown said, "the public has the right to know how it's going to be spent."
Kelso's plan for prison facility construction is a 917-page document containing information on the layout, design and amenities of the seven prison health care facilities…
LINK - LegalNewsLine.com
September 27, 2008
Prison Deal Unraveled by Sneaky Move
California needs a cohesive approach to prison reform, not a disjointed effort. That's why during the final days of the budget negotiations last week, Republicans were poised to pass a budget trailer bill that would have funded the receiver's bond and build the 53,000 beds required in AB 900. This way, we were properly addressing the first bond before working on the second.
Unfortunately, liberals in the Legislature decided to sneak in language that would have given prison inmates one day of credit for every day served – for simply breathing.
We all know the popular adage "there ain't no such a thing as a free lunch." Well, apparently free lunches do exist for far left liberals, and they only apply to convicted felons serving hard time in prisons. Under existing law, early release credits are earned through participation in work training and education programs, not given for free as an entitlement…
LINK - BestSyndication.com
September 23, 2008
Dwindling reserve?
A new state budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign Tuesday, ending a record 85-day deadlock, has a skimpy reserve that is already under attack.
The general fund that pays for most programs spends $104.3 billion in the new fiscal year that began July 1. It's backed by a reserve of $800 million, which approaches a record of another kind — smallest amount set aside, proportionately, for unexpected costs.
A court-appointed receiver placed in charge of health care in the state's troubled prison system said today that he will suggest that a federal court compel the state to spend $250 million on a stalled improvement program…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
September 22, 2008
Prison health care receiver, state officials spar over $8 billion
Feuding flared up Monday between state officials and the federally appointed receiver who proposes bringing California prison health care up to constitutional standards by building seven inmate medical centers, starting with one near Stockton.
Prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso filed court papers in advance of an Oct. 6 hearing in San Francisco before U.S. District Thelton Henderson, who appointed Kelso. Kelso seeks $8 billion to build a total of 10,000 medical and mental health beds.
The first of the medical centers statewide is planned for the plot of land occupied by the shuttered Karl Holton Youth Correctional Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility southeast of Stockton…
LINK - Recordnet.com
September 15, 2008
Inmate death rate drops 30% in state prisons
The death rate of California prison inmates has dropped almost 30% since the beginning of 2006, a court-appointed monitor reported today.
J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver for inmate medical care, said the drop was an indication that his office is succeeding in reducing the number of preventable deaths in state prisons due to inadequate access to care, poor quality treatment and other factors.
In a report to U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who is overseeing an inmate lawsuit, Kelso said about 204 inmates per 100,000 died in state prisons in the second quarter of 2008. That was down from about 291 deaths in the first quarter of 2006. Kelso did not say how many he thought could have been prevented…
LINK - LATimes.com Blog
August 29, 2008
Camarillo to study costs of prison hospital
The Camarillo City Council has authorized hiring a consultant to find out how much a prison hospital could cost the city and surrounding area.
At its meeting Wednesday night, the council voted 5-0 to spend up to $50,000 for the Natelson Dale Group to conduct a review of economic issues associated with a proposed prison hospital just beyond the city limits. The council opposes the project and previously authorized hiring a different consultant to review environmental concerns.
Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso has selected the current site of the Ventura County Youth Facility on Wright Road as one of seven spots in California for prison hospitals. The facility is expected to house 1,500 physically and mentally ill inmates…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
August 28, 2008
Inmate medical facility proposed for Folsom
A proposal to build a 1,500-bed inmate medical facility on Folsom Prison grounds drew strong warnings from Folsom city officials who said they would oppose any project that threatened to snarl traffic on local roadways.
Council members said they had serious concerns about increased traffic that would come with 1,500 additional employees.
Councilman Jeff Starsky said $30 million in city funds have been spent to build the new bridge over the American River to relieve traffic congestion created by the closure of Folsom Dam Road…
LINK - SacBee.com (The Sacramento Bee)
August 28, 2008
“State must invest in prison health-care facilities” (by J. Clark Kelso)
Californians have always persevered. Even through tough emotional and economic times, our American values and a persistent sense of hope and humanity in the face of adversity have served as guiding principles. Now, once again, tough budget choices are spawning an emotional, hot-button debate over the following question: Why should the state spend billions of dollars to provide prisoners with access to basic health care when other important priorities also need funding? In answering this question, we must turn to our basic sense of what is right.
The U.S. Constitution protects every person in this country from cruel and unusual punishment. It is a time-honored value in all civilized and free societies, and yet, after years of litigation, three federal courts have independently found that the state of California consistently violates the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment by failing to provide even the most basic medical, mental health and dental care for its prison inmates. California can and must do better…
LINK - SFGate.com (The San Francisco Gate)
August 25, 2008
Opinion: “Why spend more on sick prisoners than on sick veterans?”
Court-appointed prison receiver — attorney Clark Kelso — has carte blanche to seize $8 billion of taxpayer money to build state-of-the-art medical facilities for prisoners. Does he not realize California is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy? Let's put this outrageous money grab for vicious convicts into proper perspective.
Kelso is trying to force California to spend 33 times more money on medical facilities for violent sexual predators, murderers and other criminals than the federal government spends annually in California on medical programs for veterans — the men and women who have risked their lives to keep this country free.
As a veteran, I find this unconscionable….
LINK - ModBee.com (The Modesto Bee)
August 22, 2008
Breaking News: Local politician, candidate, and representatives at prison hospital meeting
Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long, 37th Assembly District candidate Ferial Masry and representatives of Congressman Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, R-Moorpark, 19th District Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson, and Senator Diane Feinstein, D-California, attended a meeting Thursday organized by the Prison Hospital Action Committee, which seeks to halt the construction of a prison hospital near Camarillo.
Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso plans to construct a 1,500-bed hospital for physically and mentally ill inmates at the current site of the Ventura County Youth Facility. The hospital is part of a plan to build seven facilities around the state to address the healthcare needs of inmates…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
